


Steady Little Soldier

by Kameiko



Category: Deus Ex: Mankind Divided
Genre: Angst, Christmas, Fanart, Fluff, Humor, Kids, M/M, Parsley Used as Mistletoe, Presents, Romance, Tea Parties, stuffed animals
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-26
Updated: 2018-12-26
Packaged: 2019-09-27 14:16:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,095
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17163500
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kameiko/pseuds/Kameiko
Summary: An overpopulation of stuffed animal friends? Check. Mistletoe made out of parsley? Check. Strawberry "can't drink before 12 PM" wine? Check. Check? Check. Everything's all set for Christmas at the MacReady household! All total of one hyperactive five-year-old girl and one augmented sharp eyebrow male adult please (screams out, hurting their eardrums) ALL ABOARD!





	Steady Little Soldier

**Author's Note:**

> I don't own any franchises, products, and characters mentioned in this story. My work is purely for everybody's enjoyment, and I would like to keep it that way. Having ownership over all this that requires contracts and other lawful fruitfulness is just too much responsibility. I am not ready for that kind of work, nor does my massive paycheck of $0.00 show for it in the world of fanfiction.
> 
> Merry Christmas! Please enjoy this feel good story! I know Mac, Adam, Mac's little girl, and all her animal friends did! They're hosting a tea party just for you!

Artwork done by the amazing [soothsayerc](http://soothsayerc.tumblr.com/)!

Christmas. A beautiful time of the year where every family is groggily resting on the couch with a nice cup of freshly brewed coffee, and their hyperactive children are tearing open the beautiful wrapping paper that took a whole two hours to tape and make sure the edges are caressed just right, so the spoils are not as easily squishable like last year. Then the hard work gets ripped into pieces in only a matter of a few seconds. Groggy faces become grumpy, and their cup needs a refill for alcohol. Mac’s cup doesn’t disagree with the inner morale of its handle being crushed under the twitching fingers. He stands up, starts a debate in his head whether to consume a lot of alcohol in one sitting, loses the battle to common sense, and proceeds to the kitchen to put on a pot of more coffee. A totting five-year-old covered in wrapping paper is following right behind him. He turns, looks down to see his colorful-sparkling daughter’s, with her glitter bow covered from long ear to foot stuffed rabbit, pleading eyes that give off the impression that she wants to be picked up. Mac narrows his eyes at the sudden cuteness; the debate in his head starts again and loses with his brain, again. He picks her up, questioning what she really wants as he removes the mess from her arms. The little girl’s eyes brighten, throws her hands in the air after he finishes unwrapping her, and they come down around his neck, squeezing her hug out of his airway, dropping her bunny in the choking process. She hopes her elaborate ploy of operation: “hug daddy to death” will work, and not get her into trouble for opening the presents too early. Good news for the eccentric girl is that her plan does work. Mac ends up thinking about how much of a hugger his daughter is going to be when she starts to grow up, and that mindful gene is all thanks to her mother.

Sadly, her mother is no longer with them. She had died during the incident. Around that time, Mac set out for deployment with his buddies. All good friends with wonderful wives that they constantly talk about, and how they already miss them. One even had a baby on the way, and that’s his last remaining memory. He and his two other comrades-in-arms died. All three augmented. They chose to get some augmentations to help them shoot straighter, going against the strict policy the military had in place. No one cared enough to follow the law of the military if it meant taking down terrorists a lot quicker and with a little less mess. Mac wonders if they’re all in heaven or a void somewhere drinking coffee and chatting about the good and bad times of staying out in the desert. Nothing worth missing. A bunch of sand, lizards, and things that might sting someone in the night, and then scream out in excruciating pain by morning.

Good thing those type of nights are over for now. Nothing he thinks or do will bring his unit commander days and his deceased wife back. However, he did put a stop to the escalating rumors spread around TF29 saying he divorced her due to how much of a headstrong individual he can be. That is simply not true. The perfect woman for him saw past his clinginess and angry attitude to see something much more. When she touched his scar with her thumb, she…he’s not proud of his old climate way of life. Only took him nearly six to seven years to figure the bad things out and bring the right change in himself. Groaning at painful memory, he looks at the calendar to see it’s still too early to ponder about life-uesday, December 25th, 2033. The calendar reminds him that he’s not looking forward to turning 49 around this time next year. Only one more year closer to having his premeditated mid-life crisis, and the years to come when his daughter makes fun of him for not keeping up with the times. Wondering when he’s going to take his cane and wave it around at all the boys that step onto his property to swoop the perfect high school daughter, that just made captain of the cheerleading squad, away. She won’t know how his cane will transform into a combat rifle. Just for when the jock of the American football team comes knocking on his doorstep with her least favorite flowers; she’ll see him run away with his pants down and a few bullets embedded on the porch step. He chuckles lightly to the funny scene in his head. His daughter will be mad at him for nearly a month till she opens her future Christmas present containing the _ebook 2045_ collector’s edition or a brand-new laptop that projects real life holograms.

_Ding Dong. Knock. Knock._

Mac’s head perks up from its thinking position. Company is here. He sets his daughter down on the ground and answers the door. He peeks out through the slightly a jar view to see the one and only: “Adam Jensen” at his front door with a very fine bottle of wine, terribly wrapped gifts, and had on one of his nicer coats, the _Fleur-De-Lis_ pattern. Jensen does to sometimes remember Mac’s favorites. Mac unchains the door, and with a bow, hands extended backwards, let’s the guest of honor inside. Jensen gladly accepts the bowing invitation by both boyfriend and little girl by bowing back in return, nearly dropping everything by doing so. This also helps the little girl get more familiar with her future second father. Adam remembers the times she felt uncomfortable being around him. She couldn’t play with any of the sharp things, understand why his arms look the way they do, and why his sunglasses are screwed on his face; the last part always makes Adam laugh. Then there’s the accident from when she pressed one of his ports for the typhoon. Mac’s never before seen a tree blow up like a rocket and flew over 100 feet in the air before landing on the neighbor’s car. Thank the stars this all happened outside, and his daughter told him later that day that Santa wouldn’t be able to come down the chimney if the fireplace blew up. A camera definitely needed to be there to record that precious…dangerous…funny moment. A viral sensation between father, future father, and daughter would’ve been a sight to see. The future cute-awkward comments will outweigh the hateful ones with science and bad puns.

Mac places the wine in the refrigerator, needs to be kept at a certain degree of coldness for the taste to come out with warm intentional vibes. After the young one goes to sleep, of course. Dreaming about the cookies and the stuffed animal she had just unwrapped. It’s a lamb. She hugs it tightly, face gleaming with joy as she goes to hug Adam’s leg. He gives her a pat on the head. She moves to where her rabbit fell, picks it up, and pretends that her lamb had found a new friend while applying bows of doom to the legs, neck, and ears of the poor newly added creature. The lamb has to look good for the rabbit. There can be no excuses. Adam is secretly recording all this cuteness for his boyfriend through one of his augmented eyes. The girl brings her friends over to the other Christmas presents. Adam places the rest of them at her feet. All but one, that’s for Mac. Curiosity doesn’t last long; the presents are all ripped open before Mac can blink, and Adam to focus his eye lenses. She’s jumping up and down in delight and spinning in circles. More stuffed animals! This batch includes: an orca, lynx, turkey, pelican, dragon, deer, and a Stegosaurus. Dread crosses Mac’s features at the abundance of happy faces staring at him. He didn’t think Adam would feed this much into her stuffed animal obsession. Nonetheless, she’s happy and is already setting up her new porcelain tea set that Mac had bought her.

Adam taps a finger on Mac’s shoulder. He turns around to see his lover’s head motioning towards the fridge. Drinks already? It’s not even 10 AM! Mac goes to protest but is dragged off before he could say anything. This is not how he plans to spend this day! He goes to open his mouth again, Adam silences him with a finger on his lips. He then proceeds to tell him it’s just a ruse. He pulls out of his gift to his lover from under his arm, and hands it off to him. Mac takes it, questioning the person in front of him with a quirking eyebrow. If he’s not after the wine, then what’s his true motive? Is this gift not meant for a child’s eyes? That’s a topic they’re going to have to talk about later, but thankfully this is not such an adult case. Inside the box is a beautiful handmade brown watch. Put together by Adam’s hands. He can tell by the way the shape of the clasp is in, and how careful the indentions of his cursive initials and crest are on the inside. The gears are even visible on a small part of the clock face. It’s the greatest gift Adam has ever given him, or the fact that anyone has ever given him. Besides his deceased wife’s gift of bringing a child into their lives.

The watch fits nicely and snuggly on Mac’s wrist. He shakes his hand a bit to get the tightness to loosen up. He looks up to see Adam has already pulled the wine out of the fridge! He crosses his arms and gives him a mock glare. He’s hurt that Adam used this time as an advance to start the beginning Christmas morning stages by drinking! Ignoring the fact that there’s a very hyperactive child in the next room! Mac face palms at the realization. He forgot one of the presents to the girl contained a heavy amount of chocolate and hearing her yell at the top of his lungs to her new friends is something he should’ve predicted. He’ll need that drink now. Before Adam even gets a sip, Mac already has the bottle in his hands. Darn, Mac’s hunger for alcohol is way faster than Adam’s Quicksilver ability. Worth a chuckle from the augmented man. He sits down next to Mac, gives him a slight nudge. Mac gives him a lopsided smile and passes the fruity flavor back to Adam. Adam takes it and pushes it to the side. He looks at Mac with his shades retracted, wanting to see him for a bit before he goes back behind the shielded cover and pop the cork.

Their quality time is interrupted when the hyper overlord brings two gifts to Adam. One is from her, and the other is from her daddy. Adam takes the one from the girl first and opens it up. Inside is a heart made from badly glued on macaroni and above the heart are black sick figures of them all holding hands, like a true pasta-love surrounding family. Adam gives her a hug. She throws her arms up in glee! The huggable fuzzy chin man hugged her and loves her yellow smiley colored sun in the corner! Bonus points for the way his beard feels on her face. Mac looks on, a bit jealous that he didn’t receive a hug from her after Adam, and he gave her the most presents! Adam sees the sad look, and whispers something into the girl’s ear. She nods and goes over to Mac. Staring at him wide-eyed. He stares back at her, not understanding what’s going on here. She then shouts out the word “YAY” in her high pitch voice. He covers his ears at the declaration. Too early for screaming! No drinking and screaming! Not till after 1 PM!

The girl jumps in her dad’s arms, knocking them both to the ground, chair and the tablecloth Mac grabbed onto. Adam laughs at the sight of the banana peel humor. Mac spews a few curses at Adam for not catching them! He has the ability to catch their fall with those stupid augments! Worse part is Mac gets the finger of doom to his lips from his daughter. She reminds him that cursing is now allowed in this house before 12 PM, and that he needs to put a credit in the swear jar. Mac sighs. The jar is already overflowing with all those 1 credit chips! At this rate, he’ll be paying for her college tuition before she hits eight! He sits up, helps his daughter up, and tells her to wipe her mouth, and to go play with her diverse collection of animal friends. She complies and goes back to her tea party after she cleans herself up. Mac spots a glare on his face when the girl is out of sight. Adam looks the other way, tapping his fingers on top of the present meant for him from his lover. Mac is about to take his gift back as payback, but Adam’s quicksilver is quicker than Mac’s regular fingers. Oh, Adam, can now be quick when he wants to be! He quickly opens the package to see a certified birth certificate. A real one. Not the one his adoptive parents made up and had illegally stamped. This one’s official seal looks like it’s about to peel off, and there are many stains on the beige looking old piece of paper. Mac makes a joke that he had to go to Pluto to get his hands on something like this. Adam’s not really listening. He’s just staring at the page like it’s something truly baffling, like a disease. Mac wonders if this is something he shouldn’t have sprung onto Adam. This document took Mac months to truly get into his hands. He owes money and favors to people he wishes to never speak about to Adam. He’s slowly paying everyone off. Only three more years, and his debt will be fulfilled.

A few minutes have passed. Adam’s still studying the piece of paper with a concentrated look. Mac’s worry grows. He places a hand on his lovers free one. Running his thumb under the alloy pad. Adam’s knocked out of his trance when he feels the familiar touch. He apologies. Mac tells him not to worry about it as these things of shock value do happen to stoic cyborgs that try to hide their feelings behind clip-on shades. Adam gives him a look for that comment, it’s not really a funny one, a B-rated sci-fi movie related one, if that. Still, this is a thoughtful gift, and the irking of wanting to know more about his past, before his adoptive parents popped him back into existence, is now there with a strong desire. This is his first step at this given chance. He’ll have to thank MacReady in a proper way, more than just giving him some nice strawberry flavored wine. Where’s the mistletoe, so he can give him a proper Christmas kiss?

Mac watches him look up at the two doorways leading into his kitchen. What in God’s-oh…he’s found the dreaded item his daughter insisted on hanging up. The piece of tree that has broken many hearts throughout all of time is hanging on the top part of the doorway. Mac’s thinking about all the songs about the green parsley. All happy ones! Who’s supposed to sing to such nonsense and not implant their brains with morbid thoughts of breakups and sometimes murder? He doesn’t! Before he can even spit out his fears, Adam is dragging him under the door way, his eye recording all of Mac’s facial reactions. Mac is not amused. He has his arms crossed, and he’s glaring a real glare this time at his lover. Adam finds this to be adorable! All that’s missing is the caroling and angels singing Hallelujah in the background! This kiss will be one to tell their grandkids!

A kiss is a kiss, and Adam will get his kiss for their future grandkids! He holds Mac’s head still, leans in, and plants a sweet one on the man’s lips, enjoying the tenderness of their love. Before Mac can kiss him back, the little daughter of bad timing rushes in between them with an armful of stuffed animals. Mac sees that there are some that he’s never seen her open. Where did these come from? She starts naming them and thanking Adam for letting her open these Christmas presents the other day when he spent the night, and daddy passed out from being too old to notice. Adam rubs the back of his head at the response. She continues saying that daddy doesn’t need to know about this right away. That it’s best to wait a couple of weeks, so he just doesn’t remember due to the amount she already has, but then tells Adam that’s too mean to do. If that’s not a kick in the butt and a night in the dog house, Adam doesn’t know what is. Time to expect the worse of this deal.  

The hits for being stupid never come. Instead, Mac pulls him in a tight embrace, and thanks him for being there for him and his daughter. For providing her with a second parent that the girl needs. For making him see that love is still there when times are tough. Lastly, for existing. Without Adam, Mac didn’t know where his future would’ve gone. Adam returns the hug, glad that he’s not getting a facial slap for contributing to the overpopulation growth of stuffed animals in Mac’s kids’ room. For now, he makes a mental note to make sure to spoil Mac a lot more with gifts at Christmas time to make up for the amount he will end up spending more on every year for the little lady in their life. Plus, more alcohol for Adam, knowingly he won’t be able to drink it, it’s the view that counts. Not the alcohol, but the sight of seeing Mac and his daughter fill out their happy lives together; and Adam will make sure he’s there to record every second of it to show these recordings and images later down the road. They’ll need the happiness for their family’s generation.


End file.
